Tuesday, April 26, 2011

This is sort of an odd photo. I laid my finished quilt out across the couch, and took a photo from farther away. It didn't look right, so I "turned" the photo on my computer. Now it still looks wonky-jawed:

...but you can see the entire thing.

I call this quilt (and three others that I made for Blackeyed Susan's friends) Sassy Girls. That is the name of the cute fabric here. Click on the photo to see it more easily.

(it is the fabric that is not the horse fabric.)

"Sassy" describes Susan and her friends perfectly.

*and* Susan loved horsies and horsey books when she was smaller.

Here you can see, not quite so large (photographer I am *not*) a gorgeous ballerina fabric, some music fabrics (Susan wanted "lots of ballet and lots of music" in her quilt), and a fabric commemorating September 11, which is unfortunately part of our children's lives. All of the Sassy Girls have a piece of that in their quilts:

(even though Susan does not play piano, she loved the "keys" fabric.)

Our high school, which opened in 1921, has celebrated "Ivy Day" every year since it opened. All of the seniors parade down the street in front of the school, and the Ivy Queen and her court present a pot of ivy to the school, to be planted and (hopefully) begin climbing up the sides of the building. So I put ivy fabric in two corners:

Love tradition. South Side is the only high school in town that has any tradition this cool. They also have real-live china that is embossed S/S that they use, with a silver punch bowl, for special occasions.

I have two "nutcracker" fabrics in the quilt, commemorating Susan's six or so times she participated in our city's production:

More ballet fabric, and some baseball fabric, on top of which I sewed the patch from her baseball hat. I don't remember this, tho' everybody else in the family does, but Susan played on the same team as her boyfriend in fifth and sixth grade:

... and check out that Kellogg's fabric. How cool to have a fabric with your last name on it?

The fabric on the left below says Gracie (Susan's real middle name is Grace. I found a "blackeyed Susan" fabric just before I quilted this section, so I ripped out a square and replaced it. She shares that nickname with her grandmother:

Cubs. 'nuff said.

The "roses with stripes" in the top of the photo below is left over from a dress I made Susan when she was a baby. The red and white "how do I love thee? let me count the ways" fabric is what I used to back Johnny Tremain and Lily's wedding quilt. I love putting the same fabric in lots of things, just as my Grandma did. I used to love finding them in different quilts in our home.

I found three yards of a cute pink ballet fabric at the store. That is enough to cover half of the back of the quilt, so it does.

Another fabric on the back is ballet tutus with the names of famous ballets: Swan Lake, Coppelia, etc. On the left, the purple and green diamonds fabric was the backing to Rocky Balboa and Forget-me-not's wedding quilt:

...and more soldiers because of the Nutcracker thing.

Susan's quilt is quilted, and her three friends' are tied. And now, all they need are their labels:

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

I woke up crying, and cried all through the morning. All because my sweet Blackeyed Susan turned eighteen.

When we had six-in-eight-years, then almost ten years later had Susan and then her brother Alvin Fernald, I figured the last two were supposed to go more slowly. So that I could savor each and every day. Well, darn it, time didn't slow down. Susan's childhood went just as quickly as the others.

What a precious privilege it is to be her mother. So many things stored away in my heart that I can remember and laugh or cry over. Even the fight we had the night before her birthday will be softened when next I think of it. (it wasn't a biggie...)

I bought a beautiful card with sappy sentiments (yeah, I cried through the entire card display--possibly not a good time to buy a card, kinda like "don't go to the grocery when you're hungry" sort of thing), and then forgot to give it to her! We watched some trash-tv together (Say Yes to the Dress, Cake Boss, Project Runway) and that evened me out, emotionally. We looked online for fabrics for her prom dress. We had steak-and-mushrooms for her birthday dinner. (She's an expensive girl: her brother MacGuyver always wanted pancakes for his birthday dinner.) We had all the grandkids over to sing Happy Birthday and have a piece of cake. Alvin bought Susan her junk-food trifecta: Flamin' Hot Cheetos, Mountain Dew, and a Reese's pb cup. Her boyfriend bought her two lottery tickets because she was 18--hey, she won 50 cents! Kind of a quiet day, and that was okay for me. I still have to endure graduation!